Meta’s Court Win Should Mark a Turning Point Toward More Competition and Less Government Control

Originally posted on Substack. 

​A federal court just handed Meta a decisive win—and Washington a badly needed wake-up call.

By dismissing the FTC’s high-profile antitrust case, Judge James Boasberg didn’t simply reject one lawsuit. He exposed a deeper problem: too many in government and across the political spectrum believe competition can be engineered from above, rather than unleashed from below.

This ruling should be a turning point. If policymakers are serious about promoting vibrant, open markets, they must stop trying to centrally plan outcomes and start clearing away the political choke points that smother competition long before any tech company does.

​The FTC’s failed theory—that Meta still holds an illegal monopoly despite facing a swarm of rivals—was built on a narrow, static view of a dynamic market. The agency argued Facebook and Instagram are fundamentally different from TikTok because they revolve around “friends and family.” That argument collapsed the second the evidence hit the courtroom. As the judge noted plainly, TikTok “holds center stage as Meta’s fiercest rival.”

Consumers already made their choice. The government just didn’t like it.

It’s a pattern: where Washington sees monopolies, the real world shows competitive pressure pushing firms to evolve. Meta didn’t maintain dominance by freezing the market—it had to reinvent its platforms to keep up with short-form video, algorithmic feeds, and shifting consumer expectations. That’s why Americans now spend only a fraction of their Facebook time scrolling through updates from their actual friends. The product changed because the competition demanded it.

This is precisely why a healthy economy requires more market entry and less regulatory overreach, not the opposite. When the government defines markets however it chooses, rewrites history, and pursues lawsuits disconnected from consumer realities, the result is fewer new competitors—not more. Investors pull back. Startups get hemmed in. Acquisition pathways shrink. And the entire innovation ecosystem slows.

Some on the right have fallen for this too, using “monopoly” as a catch-all insult rather than a legally meaningful term. But once you anchor antitrust to actual metrics—prices, quality, innovation—Meta doesn’t fit. Its services are no charge. Its ads can be ignored. Its products face constant substitution threats. Its acquisitions (approved originally by the FTC) enhanced consumer value.

The court recognized that reality. And it’s a reminder that the consumer-welfare standard remains the only reliable compass in antitrust law. It measures harm the way economists do—not the way political movements do.

The alternative—the neo-Brandeisian approach championed by Chair Lina Khan—tries to punish companies for being large, effective, or popular. That theory collapses when confronted with actual evidence of competition, as Brian Albrecht pointed out in his analysis. But the danger isn’t just bad lawsuits. It’s the chilling effect on innovation, investment, and the next wave of startups wondering whether success will simply put a target on their backs.
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If Washington truly wants to support competition, it should start by removing the barriers it created:

• Stop politicizing antitrust. Competition happens bottom-up, not by bureaucratic design.
• End selective favoritism and carveouts that tilt markets. Subsidies, tax breaks, and regulatory privileges distort competition more than any merger does.
• Focus on voluntary exchange and consumer choice. Not on reshaping the economy according to ideological preferences.
• Preserve the consumer-welfare standard. It’s the guardrail that prevents politics from replacing economics.

Meta’s win doesn’t mean the tech sector is perfect. It means the real monopoly threat still comes from government—utilities, water districts, licensing boards, tax-favored entities, and agencies whose incentives align with control, not competition. Breaking that grip would do more for market dynamism than any forced corporate breakup dreamed up in D.C.

The path forward is straightforward: more competition driven by people, fewer decisions dictated by government. This ruling doesn’t end the antitrust debate—but it should reset it. And it’s long past time.

​Sources and further reading.
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WSJ reporting on Meta’s court victory: https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/meta-defeats-ftcs-antitrust-case-alleging-social-media-monopoly-504b2323

My X thread: https://x.com/vanceginn/status/1990878777795359214?s=46&t=Zv07DS2UC3mLPAOmcJxg_Q
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Brian Albrecht’s X thread: https://x.com/briancalbrecht/status/1990866831553310762?s=46&t=Zv07DS2UC3mLPAOmcJxg_Q

NetChoice statement: https://x.com/netchoice/status/1990867855668068534?s=46&t=Zv07DS2UC3mLPAOmcJxg_Q